We meet every Sunday at 10am on the first Sunday of the month, and 10:30am on the remaining Sundays.
We meet in the Bethany Room at High Street
Methodist Church, Witney. Postcode is OX28 6HG.
Our children's group arrangements are currently on hold, as we have no children participating regularly at present, but with advance notice, we can always accommodate children and are happy to do so.

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Minutes of March meeting for business

WITNEY LOCAL QUAKER MEETING

Minutes of a meeting for worship for business
held on 1 March 2015

15 Friends were present, and §26.70 from Quaker Faith and Practice was read
during our opening worship.

15.05 Matters arising

a) Away Day: We
agree to make this an excursion to Combe Mill on the afternoon of Sunday 17
May. Friends will be asked to sign up beforehand so that the appropriate
group/family tickets can be purchased. The cost of the day will be met from
meeting funds.

b) Use
of the Bethany Room: Mahalla Mason has written formally to the Methodist Church
to ask about use of the Bethany Room. We are welcome to a trial period of three
months, after consultation over security and storage arrangements. Once this
has been settled, we will agree a start date.

c) Area
Meeting in Witney: Friends are asked
to sign up for food they can contribute to the AM lunch on 15 March, when we
expect that about 40 people will attend. Sharon Watson and Jennifer Barraclough
will prepare our report on the life of this meeting. Our representatives will
be Sue Bowers and Mahalla Mason.

15.06 Audited accounts 2014

We have received the audited accounts for 2014 from our
treasurer, Ruth Slade. We note that contributions were above budget and that we
have moved in the right direction of reducing our reserves as planned. We have
made donations of £998 from our special collections. We are grateful for the
careful preparation of these accounts and accept them.

15.07 Matters from Spiritual and Pastoral Care
Gathering held on 24 February

a) The first
meeting of the proposed book group will be held at 3 Church Green on 1 March at 5 pm. All are welcome.

b) Attendance at
the AM elders and overseers training weekend at Charney Manor on 5-7 June: we appoint Ed Morris and
hope that one other name can be
found. We ask Friends who would be
interested and available to let the Clerks'
team know. The cost is subsidised from AM and LM funds.

c) Enquirers'
weekends 10-12 April, 23-25 October: Suzette Hubbert is able to go to the October weekend, and other attenders
are encouraged to let the clerks' team
know if they would like to go. The meeting will subsidise the cost.

d) Funeral wishes:
it is now over two years since we wrote to Friends asking for any information on funeral wishes which
Friends want to give us. There is no obligation
to do this, but we feel an update would be helpful. We ask Lesley Morris and Jennifer Barraclough to approach
Friends accordingly.

e) The next
Spiritual and Pastoral Care Gathering will be on Wednesday 20 May at 7.30 at 3 Church Green. All are welcome.

15.08
North
Leigh Primary School

We
have been asked if we will visit North Leigh primary school to give an assembly on Quakers to Key Stage 1 and
2 children at one of their lunchtime Monday
slots. We ask Mahalla Mason and Ruth Slade to begin preparation for this, and invite other Friends who might be
willing to help to contact them.

15.09 Report from Nominations Group

a)The name of Peter Couchman is brought for appointment to the
Finance group from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017. We appoint the Friend named
accordingly and release Don Mason with thanks for his service.

b)Our Nominations Group has considered how to complete the
group which looks after our special collections. Allan Carr and Caroline Bing
are willing to undertake the tasks required throughout the year of banking
receipts and gathering information from charities. We accept the suggestion
from the Nominations group to ask in October for names of Friends interested in
joining Allan and Caroline in recommending our special collections for 2016,
rather than appointing now.

15.10 Any other business

a) Our
treasurer has reported that Quaker Peace Network- West Africa has been unable to receive our
donation; the cheques we sent have been returned.
We agree to make the donation to Quaker Peace Network –Africa instead.

b) Book of Meetings 2015: we agree to
purchase 1 copy for the meeting, and
remind Friends that this useful directory is available. Mahalla Mason as correspondence clerk will
hold our copy.

c) April meeting for business: as our next
meeting for business would fall on
Easter Day, 5 April, we agree to cancel this meeting, there being no urgent matters before us.
Meeting for worship will still commence at 10
am.

There being no other business, the meeting
closed with worship at 12.15